A Journey Through Breast Cancer | By Kathy Baum

A Happy Day

Yesterday was really a good day. I could sleep soundly the night before and in the morning, as I made carrot, apple & lemon juice by a brand new juicer, it tasted SO Good! It means my taste is coming back. For lunch George and I went to Costa Mesa to see his old friends, who flew to San Diego from PA for a vacation. Thank God, again, I could enjoy good conversation as well as a quiche & chicken vegetable soup. If it were two days ago, I couldn’t have, but thankfully so far my side effects are fading away instead of persisting.

Even in the evening, I had enough energy to go to the Happiness Hour at church to study about happiness. Every person who saw me made a big smile saying, “ You look great. I am glad to see you!” Their greetings were so sincere that I felt happy instantly.

While Tolstoy quotes, “ Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them,” you may not be satisfied even in the good circumstance or can be happy even in the bad circumstance; In another words, I learned that happiness is our choice instead of expecting it to come from surroundings. Interestingly, a Japanese book I read today also was making the same point: In “ Love From The Depth” , Tomihiro Hoshino, who is quadriplegic but a well known artist drawing with his mouth in Japan, quotes, “ Illness or Injury as such involve neither happiness nor unhappiness. People’s ideas and attitudes toward life are what allow illness and injury to make them miserable.” Nobody wants to be paralyzed, or have cancer. Yet even if it happens, we don’t necessarily need to be unhappy. The Bible says : When we run into problems and trials, we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.